In the digital broadcast service, data broadcasting is available along with television or audio broadcasting. A data broadcast reproduction controller for recording and reproducing data broadcast has been developed (JP 2001-257989 A, for example).
The data broadcast reproduction controller has functions of receiving data broadcast and recording data content of the received data broadcast, and also reproducing the recorded data content of the data broadcast.
With such a data broadcast reproduction controller, the data broadcast can be special-reproduced, such as fast-forwarding or fast-rewinding. As a method for the special-reproduction of pictures, a method has been proposed, for example, in which only an I-picture is detected from a video stream for frame advance of still pictures.
In the special reproduction of data broadcast, however, the control information related to data broadcast is missing from a TS (Transport Stream) packet. For this reason, after the special reproduction of data broadcast, it is necessary to reboot the data broadcast in order to reacquire the data content thereof.
One possible approach for this is to control the reproduction of data broadcast, by utilizing the version information of data broadcast described in SIT (Selection Information Table) of a partial TS packet. The cycle of delivering SIT, however, is as long as about three seconds, so that it is insufficient to control the reproduction of the data broadcast after the special reproduction.
As stated above, in the conventional data broadcast reproduction controller, the data broadcast is rebooted for each special reproduction, so that after special reproduction, the data broadcast is reproduced again from its beginning. Therefore, in order for a user to view a continuation of the data broadcast that he or she has been viewing before the special reproduction, he or she needs to perform again, at the end of the special reproduction, operation procedures that have been done before the special reproduction. The user cannot view the data broadcast during the special reproduction of the data broadcast.
It is also necessary to reacquire the data content of data broadcast when the user switches a receiving channel to another one, and then returns the channel to the original one while receiving a particular channel of the data broadcast. Therefore, for the user to view a continuation of the data broadcast that he or she has been viewing before switching a channel, the user is required to perform again the operation procedures done before the switching of the channel.